Drip Curl Magic Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 Ok, I don't know a whole lot about computers so, bare with me. I recently had my friend recover all of my files off of my hard drive... and then reinstall windows xp. Problem was, I had forgotten where the disk to install all of my drivers was. I was sick of not having any sound. So, I decided that I could probably Install the drivers if I were to use the Restore Disk that came with my computer. So, I slipped disk 1 of 2 restore disks into my cd drive. It gave me three options- 1-Non destrictive system restore2-system restore- no format3-system restore- quick format I decided to do a no format restore... so I wouldn't lose any of my files... but all the original drivers would be installed. Problem was... I was already using something like... 48 gigs of my 50 gig hard drive. I have a feeling that my hard drive, being so full before I tried to restore, caused a problem. because normally, it will start restoring... and it'll copy all these files until the bar gets to 100%. Then it'll ask for the second disk. And then copy a few more files. But this time, it only made it up to 67% on the first restore disk... and decided it was done copying files. then it told me to restart because the restore was "finished". but when I restared... it booted up with the following message- "Windows could not start because of an error in the software.Please report this problem as:load needed DLLs for kernal.Please contact your support person to report this problem." :steering: :hyper: :gift: :wink: :) :( ;) :Alien: :Crunk: After several minutes of harsh contemplation... I decided that it was more important to have a working computer than to wait until someone could help me save all of my files. So, I decided to perform a quick format... with hopes that my computer would atleast become functional. But it did the exact same thing to me.... made it through 67% of the file copying.... then died on me and rambled about the missing DLLs or whatever. and I'm totally stumped as to what I can do to save my computer. And now I feel like a complete dumbass because right after I did all of this, I found the VPR matrix Drivers install disk. So, all of this was for nothing. Are there any computer geeks out there who pity me enough to guide me through an actual reformat- step by step? (i'm pretty sure you computer geeks have a more manual approach to reformatting:D ) It would be nice if there were some way to save all my data... But if it would simply be easier to get rid of it all and start on a fresh slate... that's ok with me too. I just REALLY need a computer right now. Desperately. Help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C1ay Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 Did you try option 1, Non-destructive restore just to see what happens. Formatting the drive only requires that you start the system in "Command Prompt Only" mode and run "format c:" at the prompt. It will erase your data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drip Curl Magic Posted March 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 yeah, I've tried all three format options. It just does the same thing as the other 2 options. ok, command prompt is the black screen that shows up before booting up windows, correct? or is there some special way to boot up into a command prompt? sorry for being mr. computer illiturate... but I seriously don't know ****. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C1ay Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 ok, command prompt is the black screen that shows up before booting up windows, correct?Yeah. Sometimes you have to hit F10 or F8 while booting to select the "Command Prompt Only" option. Once booted to a command prompt you will have a black screen with a c:> prompt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drip Curl Magic Posted March 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 mmk, and after I tell it that I want to format c:.... it will erase all my files.... and I'm assuming that that includes windows, so, I'll have to reinstall windows... and I'll be starting from scratch, basically? And if this is the case... can I use my restore disk to reinstall windows? Because I never got a windows disk.... only 2 restore disks and a drivers disk. Yup, I bought one of those stupid pre-assembled pre-windows installed over priced computers. (stupid me) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C1ay Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 mmk, and after I tell it that I want to format c:.... it will erase all my files.... and I'm assuming that that includes windows, so, I'll have to reinstall windows... and I'll be starting from scratch, basically? And if this is the case... can I use my restore disk to reinstall windows? Because I never got a windows disk.... only 2 restore disks and a drivers disk. Yup, I bought one of those stupid pre-assembled pre-windows installed over priced computers. (stupid me)Yep. It will erase everything. At that point your restore disks should work......as long as nothing is wrong with the restore disk. Have you checked it really well for scratches and smudges. You might do that and clean it and try it just one more time before formatting since it could be a problem with your restore disk that is causing it to fail prematurely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binary_Branflakes Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 Hey, i have alot of experience with reformatting both with restore disks and without. I'm about 90% sure that if you wipe the hard drive out clean NOT using the restore disks, the restore disks won't work. See, the restore disks leave some files or something on the hard drive when reformatting with them and if you do a manual format, the files won't be there. ...but someone correct me if I'm wrong...and i could be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drip Curl Magic Posted March 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 Well, I'm really hoping that's not it. I recently moved... and I had to pack it away with a bunch of other cd's in boxes.... but on the trip over to my new house... my cd's got pretty thrashed from not being packaged properly.... and the disk itself looks pretty scuffed up. I tried cleaning it first with some special alcohol based cd cleaning solution.... then I tried to fill in some of the scratches with some guitar polish. I dunno, now that I think of it... it's probably is the restore CD... because the under side of it has plenty of scratches... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binary_Branflakes Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 I would see if you couldn't get your hands on a copy of your operating system, like borrow one from a friend of something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drip Curl Magic Posted March 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 Hey, i have alot of experience with reformatting both with restore disks and without. I'm about 90% sure that if you wipe the hard drive out clean NOT using the restore disks, the restore disks won't work. See, the restore disks leave some files or something on the hard drive when reformatting with them and if you do a manual format, the files won't be there. ...but someone correct me if I'm wrong...and i could be. oh, boy.... hmmm.... well, in the event that I do decide to take a stab at whiping my hard drive clean manually... and then my restore disk doesn't work... how much does a new Windows XP OS cost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binary_Branflakes Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 Hey, i have alot of experience with reformatting both with restore disks and without. I'm about 90% sure that if you wipe the hard drive out clean NOT using the restore disks, the restore disks won't work. See, the restore disks leave some files or something on the hard drive when reformatting with them and if you do a manual format, the files won't be there. ...but someone correct me if I'm wrong...and i could be. but, the case could be that the restore disk checks the bios or something. Because restore disks are designed to work only on your computer's specific model. for instance, you couldn't take your restore disk and reformat any other model of pc...it will error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drip Curl Magic Posted March 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 I would see if you couldn't get your hands on a copy of your operating system, like borrow one from a friend of something. Yeah, I'll start asking around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binary_Branflakes Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 if you have an Office Depot... http://www.officedepot.com/textSearch.do;jsessionid=00004OuRHAX6UHia25FVIhnWaXD:10gg724c6?uniqueSearchFlag=true&Ntt=windows+xp&x=0&y=0 there are the prices, atleast online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C1ay Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 I dunno, now that I think of it... it's probably is the restore CD... because the under side of it has plenty of scratches...I just happened to notice that you said it failed in the same place each time you tried a different option so it seemed it could be the restore CD. Binary is also correct that some restore CDs won't work on a clean drive. It's a feature to keep you from using them on multiple computers. It's also possible that you have a copy of Windows on a hidden partition on the hard drive. That is common with newer PCs. It usually requires you to toggle some setting at startup so that you can use it to reinstall the system but it would be hard to help you with this since the procedure varies so greatly from one manufacturer to another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drip Curl Magic Posted March 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 ok, I just thought of something... which brings a new question to mind... I asked my mother a while back if she still had the windows disk that they used to install windows XP on my fathers computer... and she said she still had it.... but she was pretty sure that microsoft made it so that you could only install windows off of it once. She said she thinks she already tried to install it on another computer. I don't know if I believe her... because she didn't really sound too sure of what she was saying herself. So, what do you guys think.... can I use my father's windows XP disk to install windows? Will this cause any problems with the registration? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binary_Branflakes Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 yeah true. If it's a Dell it you can press soemthing like CTRL F? to bring up the saved OS. Dell's (atleast the newest ones) use norton Ghost to save your OS on a hidden partition on the drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binary_Branflakes Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 ok, I just thought of something... which brings a new question to mind... I asked my mother a while back if she still had the windows disk that they used to install windows XP on my fathers computer... and she said she still had it.... but she was pretty sure that microsoft made it so that you could only install windows off of it once. She said she thinks she already tried to install it on another computer. I don't know if I believe her... because she didn't really sound too sure of what she was saying herself. So, what do you guys think.... can I use my father's windows XP disk to install windows? Will this cause any problems with the registration? well, you could...but you are going to run into a problem when Windows asks you for the Activation code. it's not going to allow you to use that one twice. So, as far as the serial & activation code, your mom is right. But if you had a different serial and corresponding activation code, you could. (that's just a hypathetical, hehe) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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